[Heather TopcikParticipant]

Dear Collective Wisdom:
I have had a blog on WP.com for 2 years and would like to move it to WP.org for greater design flexibility (among other things). Ostensibly, this should be easy with WP’s “Guided Transfer” available in their store. However, I am finding that the option is either unavailable (they say they’ve reached their quota for the day, even when it is 1 a.m, or 5 a.m) or that the service isn’t available for blogs that use custom fonts (which apparently mine do, and I can’t seem to disable them). Because my technical skills are somewhat deficient, I am nervous about trying to attempt the transfer on my own, so I am looking for a) someone who might be able to do this for me or b) someone who would be able to walk me through the process in case something goes wrong. I’m looking forward to improving my WP skills through training, but am anxious to move my blog as soon as possible.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Heather Topcik
http://www.domaphile.com

[SteveKeymaster]

@Heather– I haven’t movde a WP.com blog to WP.org in a while… but this should work:
1) Setup your new WordPress installation at your new host.
2) Install your theme… ok, this gets a bit tricky. You are using the FUSION theme, however, it’s not available for easy download. You can find all the files here.
3) You have clearly modified the theme on WP.com, so you will need to copy your modifications to your new install… options, custom css, etc.
4) EXPORT your blog from WP.com, and then IMPORT it to your new site.

That should get you about 95% there. You may have to tweak a bit.

If this is confusing, feel free to stop by the Meetup NEXT month… we will have a genius bar available, and someone can help you walk through this.

[amylaneioSpectator]

The WordPress.com theme you are using uses custom fonts. If you change your theme temporarily, you should be able to use the easy transfer tool.

Otherwise, to do it yourself, as Steve said, you simply need to export the data from WordPress.com and import it on your WordPress.org installation. (if you haven’t already, you’ll want to have set up your WordPress.org installation with your theme, plugins and settings).

To export from WordPress.com go to: Tools -> Export and choose ‘All ?content’. This will allow you to download a WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) file of your blog’s content.

to import it to your WordPress.org install go to: Tools -> Import -> WordPress and install the WordPress importer. Once it’s installed, activate it, and navigate back to the importers page and choose WordPress again. Click ‘Choose File’ and select the WXR file you downloaded earlier. Once you upload it, WordPress will guide you in assigning the posts to your username and import all of the data.

[Erica VarleseParticipant]

@Heather,

If you need any help along the way, I’d be happy to lend a hand. I work for WordPress.com, so I can also help you to disable your custom fonts on your WordPress.com site, if you’d still like to do that.

I’d recommend following both Steve and Andrew’s instructions – there’s also a support document that can help walk you through the process, too:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org

Feel free to shoot me a private message if you need some extra help, too 🙂

[CathrynParticipant]

Question – I am using the WordPress Importer plug in (which has mixed reviews apparently 3 stars out of 5) and got the following message in attempting to move posts from WP.com to WP.org:

Sorry, there has been an error.
File is empty. Please upload something more substantial. This error could also be caused by uploads being disabled in your php.ini or by post_max_size being defined as smaller than upload_max_filesize in php.ini

Any advice appreciated.

[amylaneioSpectator]

Cathryn, it sounds like your host may need to update those values for you. You can sometimes also update them yourself by adding lines to your .htaccess file in your root directory. See the following for more info.

http://roshanbh.com.np/2008/01/uploading-larger-files-in-php.html

[CathrynParticipant]

Hi Andrew,

thanks for this information. So the root directory … is that where htdocs is (and there is an access folder)? I can create a new file but I’ve never added ‘lines’/information or a file before – how do I get content actually in there? Does that have to go through FileZilla? What format would I put the information in?

Someone else wrote in a comment to do the following –

1. Goto php.ini file,inside php folder.
2. search for variables ‘upload_max_filesize’ & ‘post_max_size or max_post_size’
3. change its default value from 2M to 10M(or depends on ur need ).
4. save the php.ini file.
5. restart the server

I don’t know where the php folder. What do you think of that?

At the plugin itself they write —

Q: Help! I’m getting out of memory errors or a blank screen.

A: If your exported file is very large, the import script may run into your host’s configured memory limit for PHP.

A message like “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted” indicates that the script can’t successfully import your XML file under the current PHP memory limit. If you have access to the php.ini file, you can manually increase the limit; if you do not (your WordPress installation is hosted on a shared server, for instance), you might have to break your exported XML file into several smaller pieces and run the import script one at a time.

For those with shared hosting, the best alternative may be to consult hosting support to determine the safest approach for running the import. A host may be willing to temporarily lift the memory limit and/or run the process directly from their end.

*******************************

I have a main domain and then a few subdomains. This is a subdomain.

Thank you!

Cathryn.

[amylaneioSpectator]

The root folder I’m referring to us wherever your WordPress is installed (most of the files and folders start with ‘wp-‘.) the .htaccess file is a special kind of text file that tells the server how WordPress handles things like redirecting permalinks. You would add the lines to this file as described in the link I posted. Just take care not to erase anything else that’s already in the file, or you will have issues with your site.

I would contact your host first, as they are (or should) be able to change these settings for you.

[CathrynParticipant]

Okay, thanks.

I just looked for .htaccess – is it in a folder? I may have missed it but I don’t see it. Yes, I hear you re: not erasing anything!

The host has sporadic support on the weekend so I tried calling but got tired of holding so if I can try this myself, that would be optimal.

Thanks –

Cathryn.

[amylaneioSpectator]

It should be in the base folder where WordPress is installed, however you may need to set your FTP browser to view hidden files.

[CathrynParticipant]

okay. where would I find that? I went into the ftp folder and there are no files in it.

thanks so much for helping me through this.

Cathryn.

[amylaneioSpectator]

Did you make sure hidden files are made visible? You may need to make WordPress generate it. You can do that by setting up Permalinks under Admin -> Settings -> Permalinks.

[CathrynParticipant]

Hmmm… I don’t see any option for that under the Permalinks Settings. It has Common Settings and Optional.

[CathrynParticipant]

Andrew, thanks for all your help. I’ll ask my host company to help tomorrow and hopefully it won’t be a problem.
Thanks!
Cathryn.

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